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Thursday, April 09, 2009

Life is Tough by Stacy Gooch-Anderson

Being the perfect mother that I am, when one of my dear children would come to me, crushed by life's blows, I'd impart these loving words of wisdom to them, "Life sucks and then you die."

I think they got the message because they generally face life head-on and rarely whine or complain to me.

However, if I had it to do over again, I think instead I'd try Stacy's approach to life's lessons. She uses a healthy dose of humor, a sprinkling of laughter and a generous dollop of wit as she shares with us some of life's lessons and how to deal with them.

I loved Stacy's book. I read it late one night when Megan was out with that boy she hangs with and DH was at work. The book is a quick read and it had me laughing out loud in several places, wishing I had someone close by with which to share the humor. I very much liked Stacy's first book, The Santa Letters, but I think I liked this one even better.

One part that I particularly loved came from Life Lesson #23, "Life is like a roller coaster. You can scream every time you hit a bump or throw your hands up in the air and enjoy the ride." That's a big one for me. I tend to get a little overwhelmed and stressed out over life's little ups and downs. I need to regularly be reminded that life happens, and I can choose to be miserable or I can choose to enjoy the ride.

Another of my favorites is when Stacy compares marriage (and it works equally well when applied to children, siblings, parents and other relationships) with the family dog. "It's a pain in the neck and always in the way, but you love it anyway and treat it with respect."

Stacy has a blog where she posts a daily life saver. A life saver is a little "gem of wisdom" that helps us get through the day or deal with a particular challenge. Like her book, the life savers are very funny but leave you a little wiser.

One of Stacy's first life savers was: "Fat people are harder to kidnap." I could appreciate Stacy's story about that, having dealt with my own weight issues for years.

A personal life saver that I've used for years comes from a Star Trek TMG episode, when event after event goes awry, the normally stuffy Capt. Picard laughs and says, "Sometimes... you just have to bow to the absurd." On those days when so many things go wrong that I find myself looking up at the sky and yelling, "Are you kidding me?!" that little life saver reminds me to laugh and go on.

The life saver for today is "All power corrupts but we need the electricity." I can't wait to see what Stacy writes about that one.

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"A lot of people in this world hear voices in their minds. Some are called crazy, and they lock themselves away in little rooms where they bang their heads against the wall all day. The others are called writers and they pretty much do the same thing."